FT: WALES 1 - 1 BELGIUM. Match thread

[lardy]

Journalists put zero effort into their marks out of 10. They are submitted at the last moment when all the other stuff has been finished.

[caerkid]

Those really are just random numbers, both Colwill and Burns did fine.
The Guardian writeup last night talked about how unlucky Belgium were and had very little about Johnson's goal (with no mention of Ramsey's skill) but can see they have updated it a bit this morning to be fair.

[Pearcey3]

Agreed and the best thing for me is that they improved the team. Ampadu did well, but I did note that we had our best spell when he went back into defence - think that was just a result of the impact the subs had more than him not fitting in as a midfielder. Mepham has had a good set of June games and, if he can maintain that form, I can see Ampadu becoming more of a midfielder for Wales - Allen was playing a bit further forward while he was on and did pretty well.

Johnson is knocking on the door very hard to be included every game, but I was a bit disappointed in him against the Dutch and I thought James caused them a lot problems last night.

Mepham looks a lot more assured now. Some really tough calls for Page to make going forward. Fingers crossed injuries are light going into the finals.

[Kind of Blue]

Those really are just random numbers, both Colwill and Burns did fine.
The Guardian writeup last night talked about how unlucky Belgium were and had very little about Johnson's goal (with no mention of Ramsey's skill) but can see they have updated it a bit this morning to be fair.

I think you could easily say Wales were just as unlucky from my (admittedly biased) viewpoint. If we’d pinched that I honestly don’t think you could complain about it.

Belgium are such a mercurial outfit, they are packed with talent, can blow top teams away, at times struggle against the likes of us, but also susceptible to getting blown away themselves.

[Trigger]

Thought we played well, some decent patterns of play and whilst we are probably more effective with Moore in the team it is nice to see us looking to play between the lines a bit more.

[NYCBlue]

Those really are just random numbers, both Colwill and Burns did fine.
The Guardian writeup last night talked about how unlucky Belgium were and had very little about Johnson's goal (with no mention of Ramsey's skill) but can see they have updated it a bit this morning to be fair.

The Guardian's build-up coverage to the Ukraine game was all about Ukraine. Their coverage of Wales and the Championship is piss poor. There's more about A-League and women's football.

[Dave Blue]

The Guardian's build-up coverage to the Ukraine game was all about Ukraine. Their coverage of Wales and the Championship is piss poor. There's more about A-League and women's football.

They’d had a slating in the comments column calling the report ‘inaccurate’.

[NYCBlue]

They’d had a slating in the comments column calling the report ‘inaccurate’.

I saw that. I'm reading them now in fact. The statement by the journalist that "Wales rarely troubled Belgium" is getting a right hammering.

[Wales-Bales]

Ampadu did well, but I did note that we had our best spell when he went back into defence - think that was just a result of the impact the subs had more than him not fitting in as a midfielder.

Moving into the backline is a natural part of his game when playing as a CDM, and you will often see him dropping deep between the centre backs when the opposition are in advanced attacking positions. On one occasion, I noted Ben Davies and Neco Wiilliams both advancing down the left flank causing an overload in the opposition half along with the further forward left sided players, and Ampadu fluidly slotted into the LCB position. Of course, it also a useful tactic when we are applying sustained pressure in the final third, or chasing the game, etc.

Mepham has had a good set of June games

Yes, I noticed that too. I watched him quite a bit when he played in the Premier League under Eddie Howe, and he was never really a bad player.

However, I see this conundrum being with us for a while longer, as Page tries to make up his mind about what he thinks is our best starting XI, but yesterday was encouraging.